Million Dollar Athlete

They told Mary Ann Lunde to take her daughter home, make her as comfortable as possible until she died. Trine, 21/2, wouldn't last much longer because of her diseased liver, and transplants in early 1984 were a relatively new, somewhat risky endeavor.

"The doctor did sit down with me and say, `It's time to buy that black suit. You're living on false hope,'" Lunde said.

A few months later while playing Wonder Woman, Trine flew off the top of a bunk bed, bounced up and went her way.

"That's when I knew she was going to be all right," Lunde said.

After almost three years of day-to-day struggles and two close brushes with death, the kid with the $1 million liver was on her way to a normal life. She was Florida's first liver transplant, only the 67th in the world when the operation was performed Jan. 19, 1984.

Today the most amazing thing about Trine Engebretsen is she's a typical 13-year-old in Fort Lauderdale. She has boundless energy, gabs on the phone too long, devours all junk food in sight, battles her older sister on a regular basis.

"I'm perfectly normal," Trine says. "All I've got to do is wake up and take some medication. If [the transplant) comes up, I'll mention it, but I don't make a big deal out of it."

One of the few times Trine volunteers her past is during U.S. Transplant Games, where she's excelled in the pool and on the track. She earned three gold medals, a silver and bronze at the games Aug. 4-7 in Atlanta to go with the two silvers she earned in Los Angeles in 1992.

Trine is most successful in the water, earning golds in the 50-meter backstroke and 100-meter freestyle this year along with her 50-meter freestyle silver in the 12-17 age group. She also won the 5-kilometer road race and took the bronze in the 50-meter dash.

"I didn't think I'd do as well as I did," Trine said. "I just go out and I have fun. I don't take it as seriously as other people."

Trine also competed in gymnastics for years and was a cheerleader. She's done everything that comes with childhood.

That's a lifetime away from the 19-pound girl who was so weak and lopsided she couldn't walk or turn over in her crib in the months before her transplant.

Jaundiced overnight

Lunde was told her second daughter was healthy when born, but 10 days later Trine started projectile vomiting. A few weeks later, at a family reunion in New York, she became jaundiced overnight. "People were making comments," Lunde said. "`This is definitely a Florida baby. She has a tan.' A baby a month old doesn't have a tan."

The next day Trine was hospitalized for the first time; 50 more hospital stays were to follow within two years. Trine was in 12 hospitals before her disease, Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency - her liver wasn't producing enough enzymes - was properly diagnosed at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

"Twelve times I was told this child was going to die," Lunde said. "They said just take her home and make her as comfortable as possible."

Lunde wouldn't settle for that, wasn't about to give up on her tiny daughter who had somehow dodged death with the help of countless doctors and on one occasion a handful of helpful strangers in Cozumel, Mexico.

Lunde appealed nationwide for a liver donor. Among her efforts she: held a press conference with Sen. Paula Hawkins, R-Fla., and Barbara Bush; appeared on Donahue and The Today Show; used the massive publicity resources of Disney World, where she had worked.

It cost $150,000 to get on the waiting list at the University of Pittsburgh, about $250,000 for the transplant operation and aftercare. Lunde's insurance had covered most of the $750,000 expenses leading up to the operation but wouldn't cover a transplant.

Lunde searched everywhere for money and finally found it in Norway. Because Trine is a dual citizen of the United States and Norway (her father is Norwegian), Lunde took a chance and wrote the King of Norway. The country would pay the bills.

The money was there, but the liver wasn't. The donor had to be 2 or 3, about 26 pounds with an O-positive blood type. Time was running out on Trine, who doctors said was slipping quickly since mid-December 1983.

The worst day of the ordeal, Lunde said, was Christmas 1983. Trine had been allowed out of the hospital to enjoy Christmas at home, but she had to be taken to the emergency room after a vein in her throat burst. Because it was a holiday, the more experienced doctors were off.

"There wasn't the most senior staff on duty," Lunde said. "A young doctor was on duty, and he tried to tell me this couldn't happen. There was blood all over me and my child."

The doctor became convinced it could happen 45 minutes later - when it happened again.

"There was a 6-foot pool of blood on the floor," Lunde said. "I thought, `How can life continue when you lose so much blood ... when you're so little and can still be alive.''' Doctors told Lunde the bursting vessels were the beginning of the end. She probably had less than 24 hours to live.